Back to CPD courses

Mentalisation Based Treatment (MBT)

Saturday, 23 January 2027 | 12:45 to 18:00
Venue: Quakers Meeting House, 77 Church Crescent, London N10 3NE

Mentalisation Based Treatment (MBT) is psychodynamically-orientated and has been manualised with a focus in helping people to understand their own thoughts and feelings and why they do what they do and to help people to understand what others might be thinking and feeling and how come they might behave in the ways that they do.

The workshop is as an introduction to MBT and is not designed to enable participants to practice MBT. However, it will give you some new ways of thinking about your own work and aims to complement your existing skill set.

Workshop Outcomes

This workshop considers:
  • What is mentalising
  • Theory – an attachment-based treatment
  • The importance of developing epistemic trust
  • Research into the effectiveness of MBT
  • What good and poor mentalising looks like
  • What a typical MBT individual and group session looks like
  • Overview of the domains in MBT
  • The not knowing stance in MBT – practice through role play or with each other
  • The use of empathetic validation in MBT – practice through role play or with each other
  • Non mentalising modes and how to intervene – may show a video to demonstrate.
  • The use of contrary moves in mentalising.
  • Q&A

Chris Bowden

Chris Bowden is an Occupational Therapist, Adult Psychotherapist, MBT Practitioner and Supervisor. He has over 20 years’ experience in the field of mental health and has specialised in working with personality disorder or with individuals and groups of patients with complex emotional and relational difficulties.

Currently, Chris is the Clinical Service Lead for the Southwark MBT Service which provides an intensive outpatient and in-reach programme at the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust. Chris remains clinically active offering individual and group MBT. Chris is also leading on the implementation of Structured Clinical Management for the Southwark borough.

Chris supervises staff inside and outside of the Trust and delivers NHS England MBT supervision for MBT practitioners in training. Chris co-leads and lectures for the psychological therapy module, which is part of the MSc in Mental Health Studies at Kings College London. He also delivers teaching, training and consultation to Teams in SLaM but also externally to other training providers.

Workshop fee:

£32.50 HCC members | £65.00 non-HCC members

How to book:

Please email training@highgatecounselling.org.uk to book your place, and let us know if you are an HCC member. We will issue an invoice at the relevant rate, and your booking will be confirmed once payment is received. Payment can be made online via the link on the invoice.